But on Tuesday, when governor Glenn Stevens left the cash rate at 2.5 per cent – for the 14th month in a row – he hardly mentioned them.

"Credit growth is moderate overall, but with a further pick-up in recent months in lending to investors in housing assets. Dwelling prices have continued to rise over recent months," is all he said.

Advertisement

It was unremarkable. And as one economist noted, it was a bit of a let down. "The biggest 'disappointment' [in the governor's statement] was the absence of discussion about the hot housing sector, the role of ;unwanted' investors and the rising risks to financial stability and the macro-economy down the track should house prices fall," Annette Beacher, from TD Securities, said on Tuesday.

"Given the emphasis on this topic from various senior RBA officials in recent weeks, we were surprised that there was no mention at all today. Perhaps, like last month, that discussion features in the [upcoming] RBA board minutes [of the meeting] rather than the official monthly board communiqué."

Ms Beacher made an interesting point, even if it was a little exaggerated. House prices are the thing that everybody is talking about at the moment. The more they rise the harder it will be for the RBA's cash rate to keep economic growth balanced across the country.

The talk of macro-prudential policies is getting louder. It's understandable that people want to know what the RBA is thinking about the topic.

But not all economists share Ms Beacher's view that Mr Stevens ought to talk about it in his interest-rate statement.

Citi Australia's chief economist, Paul Brennan, argued that it does not mean macro-prudential policies won't be deployed to dampen house prices just because Mr Stevens made a passing reference to them.

"The board's statement wasn't the place to discuss the application of macro-prudential measures, particularly as they ultimately will be decided and implemented by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority," Mr Brennan said.

"In any case, the recent Financial Stability Review and assistant governor Malcolm Edey's comments made clear the bank's concerns about rapid investor lending and we expect some form of increased capital requirements on housing investor loans if this lending doesn't slow soon," he said.

And whatever the argument, it is clear that the RBA is still concerned about the housing sector, so watch this space.

On the decision to leave the cash rate at 2.5 per cent, the RBA's behaviour is understandable.

The most recent survey data indicate that business conditions have been gradually improving, with some recovery in household sentiment from a soft patch earlier in the year.

The RBA believes this suggests "moderate growth" is occurring in the economy.

But it also notes investment spending in the resources sector "is starting to decline significantly," while investment intentions in other sectors of the economy are continuing to improve, though "these areas of capital spending are expected to see only moderate growth in the near term."

With public spending likely to remain subdued, the Bank says it still expects growth to be "a little below trend" over the next 12 months.

The thing it is watching is the unemployment rate which has increased recently to sit about 6 per cent despite "some improvement" in most other indicators for the labour market.

"The bank's assessment remains that the labour market has a degree of spare capacity and that it will probably be some time yet before unemployment declines consistently," Mr Stevens said.

Wages are growing so slowly they are not keeping pace with inflation. The bank expects wages growth to remain "relatively modest over the period ahead". This "should keep inflation consistent with the target even with lower levels of the exchange rate".

The RBA's inflation target band is between 2 per cent and 3 per cent. It expects inflation to be consistent with that target over the next two years.

"Volatility in many financial prices is currently unusually low," Mr Stevens said.

"Markets appear to be attaching a very low probability to any rise in global interest rates or other adverse event over the period ahead."

The bank is still concerned about the level of the exchange rate.

"The exchange rate … remains above most estimates of its fundamental value, particularly given the declines in key commodity prices," Mr Stevens said, so it "is offering less assistance than would normally be expected in achieving balanced growth in the economy."

That last sentence has been repeated ad nauseam for the last couple of years. But thankfully, it has lost some of its power because the dollar has recently to around US86.7¢.

Economists are hoping it drops further, to around US75¢, which just happens to be the dollar's long term average.